A ‘resilience-focused master plan’ and ‘specialist consultants’ were announced on Friday for a new South Murwillumbah flood buyback precinct, more than four years after the 2022 disasters.
Tweed Shire Council and the NSW Reconstruction Authority are in charge of the project but said hired consultants Hansen Partnership, in collaboration with Leisa Prowse Consulting, would lead the design process.
The land is not for the relocation of flood impacted dwellings, rather, it is land vacated by flood impacted dwellings that have technically become public property through the state government’s buyback scheme.
Buyback homes are generally either relocated or demolished, with new owners buying the dwellings at official buyback auctions responsible for shifting them onto higher ground.
To date, there has been little public discussion about the future of the low ground left behind, which authorities say can’t be reused for housing or short-term accommodation.
The Lismore City Council started to address the matter some months ago in relation the land in South Lismore, granting permission to at least one industrial business for expansion alongside the Wilson River.
Cycleways between Mur’bah and Sth Mur’bah suggested
Friday’s announcement for the Tweed Shire referred to opportunities for enhanced open space, recreation, walking and cycling connections.
The first area under official consideration in the Tweed Shire encompasses land south of the Murwillumbah Bridge.
The site sits alongside the Tweed River between Alma, Prospero and Colin Streets and the Murwillumbah Railway Station including Railway Street and next to Max Boyd Park and Buchannan Street.
Council staff said there were hopes of using the land to create better connections between Murwillumbah and South Murwillumbah.
Workshops with residents, landowners and local businesses to discuss ideas for future land use would be scheduled in coming months, staff said, before the consultants started developing concept plans and carrying out technical investigations that could lead to planning and zoning change recommendations.
The project would also include preparation of a precinct plan for the state heritage–listed Murwillumbah Railway Station.
Tweed Shire Council General Manager Troy Green said it was time to start seeing floodplains as assets.
NSW Minister for Recovery Janelle Saffin said the project was about Murwillumbah ‘being better prepared for the next flood, responding better to the next flood, and having a better recovery after the next flood’.
Project updates and associated key notifications could be subscribed to via the Tweed Shire Council’s Your Say section of its website.
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